The Niger State government has expressed worries over the high number of unqualified primary school teachers in public schools across the state.

Governor Abubakar Sani Bello, who disclosed this while receiving the report of the Technical Committee on Teachers Headcount in Public Primary Schools at Government House, Minna, described the development as “worrisome.”

According to him: “The number of unqualified teachers is high; over 4, 000? We should take them out, but we can also give them the option of being trained to become professional teachers.”

Bello, however, lauded the headcount committee for identifying 80 per cent qualified teachers, which he said was encouraging. He reiterated that all necessary arrangements would be made to improve the welfare of teachers to ensure quality education in public schools across the state.

“Let us identify our teachers and see how we can support them because our teachers are suffering,” Bello said. He directed the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) to set up an implementation committee on the findings made by the teachers’ headcount committee, maintaining that the implementing committee should be drawn from the Ministry of Education, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), and the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).

Presenting the report, the chairman of the committee, Comrade Labaran Garba, explained that there were 3, 135 primary schools across the state, with a total of 24, 061 teachers out of which 19, 358 are qualified, while 4,703 are unqualified. He stated that the state has 498 secondary schools with 6, 870 teachers of which 962 are unqualified. (The Guardian)

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